One Day
by TheWrongJedi
Summary: Shortly after returning to their downed ship, Anakin takes off the shackles that had held Ahsoka in the Son's prison while they have a short conversation. Missing moment in the Mortis Trilogy. One-Shot.


Ahsoka sat on the bed in the cockpit, watching Anakin struggle to take off her cuffs with various peices of tools and nails. He wouldn't talk to her, but he looked up at her constantly, and it was beginning to make Ahsoka feel uncomfortable.

The events that might have taken place earlier, Ahsoka found them escape her memory. It was all a blur, and it only became even more confusing when she woke up. All she could make out was a body against hers, and the smell of Anakin Skywalker. He was hugging her, she had realized, for reasons she didn't know and could neither explain. She felt relief roll off of him and into the Force upon him helping her stand up, gripping her arm gently yet tightly until he knew for sure she could balance herself. The next image had been even more surprising, the Daughter, of this strange planet, was no longer glowing in the brilliant way she had; like the neon lights that would shine on the random buildings of Coruscant.

That's when Ahsoka realized the angelic woman was dead.

Anakin and Obi-Wan had not spoken a single word the entre trip back to the ship; but Ahsoka noticed the way they would glance at her, then glance at each other. It was confusing, to say the least, and it frustrated Ahsoka immensely. She wanted to ask, but was cut off by Obi-Wan before she even had the chance to open her mouth. Obi-Wan decided she would repair the ship, but his voice hinted to something else. Ahsoka shrugged it off, deciding that if whatever happened was truly important they would have told her by now.

Ahsoka had begun to gather up tools and found an extra pair of goggles in a shelf before she started working. She had already climbed down into the ship when she saw a faint shadow cast into the engine. She turned around to see Anakin, he was looking at her with a strange expression. It took awhile, but she soon realized what the expression was.

_Fear._

But if it was fear, fear of what?

That's when he cleared his throat awkwardly, and told her he would take off the metal braces that were around her wrists. Ahsoka hadn't even noticed them until he pointed them out, and wondered exactly how she had gotten them. Deciding that they would need to come off sooner or later, Ahsoka did as her Master told her to do and sat on the edge of the small bed in the cockpit, her legs dangling off the side.

Now they were back in the present situation, Anakin was already working on one of the shackles. Ahsoka glanced up at his determined face, even a simple task such as this, he wore the face he would wear right before a battle were to begin. Perhaps, in his mind, one was about to?

Ahsoka was hesitant to speak, Anakin's aura was somehow... uneasy. "Master?"

Anakin didn't answer at first.

Ahsoka huffed. So that was how it was going to be. Silent treatment. She didn't even know what she did to deserve it. It didn't stop her from trying to get her Master's attention again though.

"Master?"

_"What?!" _Anakin practically barked out at her, making her jump back in her seat a little.

Ahsoka looked down, afraid to ask now. He was acting different, something in his emotion that Ahsoka decided long ago scared her. But, of course, she knew he wouldn't be acting the way he was unless something had _scared_ him.

Anakin took his hands away from Ahsoka's wrist, waiting for her to get whatever she had to say off her chest. He tried to relax himself. "I'm sorry, Snips. I'm just a bit on edge. What did you have to say?"

Ahsoka slowly raised her arms in front of her. "How did I get these?"

Anakin stared at her face in all seriousness as she pointed to the shackles. He knew why she had them, but at the same time, didn't know. Telling her why she had them would be a lie, but might also be the truth. Maybe, one day, he would explain this story to her, but that day would not be today. Ahsoka would protest, he knew, if he was to claim she seemed sort of... in a daze at the moment. Or maybe it was he who was in the daze... Anakin shook his head to clear out the thoughts and grabbed her wrist again.

"I'll tell you one day, Snips. You're..." He sighed, twisting a screw around in the lock of the cuff. "I'm not ready right now."

Ahsoka let her hopes of trying to once again have her Master open up to her die away. If Anakin Skywalker didn't want to talk about something, something she had learned long ago on the desert of Tatooine, you might as well drop the subject completely and never bring it up again.

In a matter of a minute, the first shackled broke off from her left arm. Anakin tossed it aside and grabbed her other arm - Ahsoka let out a hiss of pain.

Anakin, thinking he hurt her with perhaps too tight of a grip, let go of her right arm. Ahsoka pulled her arm back and squeezed tightly on an area just below her wrist. Anakin quickly grabbed a small container of bacta that Obi-Wan constantly told him was needed in case of emergencies.

Anakin would have to thank him later for being so prepared and for always preparing him.

Anakin put his arms out slowly in an attempt to not provoke Ahsoka. "Did I hurt you? Is something on your arm? Will you let me take a look?" Anakin asked in the most calming voice he could muster. It wasn't that he was not able to handle Ahsoka when she was hurt, or needed comfort, but... He was sort of afraid. The Ahsoka who he had met only an hour ago had scared him beyond belief. Everything _that_ Ahsoka was, or had been, was the very thing he tried to protect her from.

Ahsoka slowly gave her arm back to him. Anakin tried to smile as he gently took it back in his hand. "I didn't hurt you did I?" He asked again.

"You didn't hurt me, but... it stung." She said, a look just as confused as Anakin's on her face.

Anakin looked at her puzzled. _It stung? What was it? _

"What stung?" He asked, undoing the clips on Ahsoka's glove.

"I don't know." She answered truthfully, and Anakin knew she really didn't know why she had reacted the way she did.

Anakin slowly took away the glove to find two tiny little holes, side by side, imprinted in Ahsoka's arm. The skin around what appeared to be the _bite marks,_ was swollen and puffy. Ahsoka looked at it, her eyes wide.

"What is that?" She asked, hoping Anakin might know.

Anakin didn't know himself, but had his suspicions. Something told him, more like screamed at him, that she had been injected with some sort of poison, some sort of venom, and he had an idea of who had done it... And exactly what it had done to her.

"I don't know Snips. I think only you could answer that." He said, mentally cursing himself because he was taking advantage of the trust Ahsoka had so carefully placed with him. Injecting the tube of bacta onto the wound, Ahsoka's arms twitched slightly when Anakin placed a bandage on top of the marks.

Anakin placed Ahsoka's glove back on her arm and reattached the clips. Ahsoka waited patiently as he undid the other cuff, all while being careful not to touch the spot her wound was at, his brow furrowed.

Soon enough, the other cuff broke off, and Anakin gave a faint smile at his achievement. Ahsoka rubbed her wrists as she headed back into the engine.

"Ahsoka." She turned around when she heard Anakin say her name. "You ok, like, really ok?" He looked to her with a worried and tired expression, something similar to the look he had right when he woke up in the mornings. And Ahsoka knew why, how could he not worry, waking up everyday not knowing if it was his last? It had to be stressful.

Ahsoka looked at him confused, and laughed a little when she replied, "I'm fine, Master. Why wouldn't I be?"

Anakin looked out of the ship and saw Obi-Wan. He sighed, "Just making sure." He mumbled something else, but Ahsoka couldn't quite make out what it was.

Anakin didn't even let Ahsoka respond, he walked out of the ship and onto the loading ramp where Obi-Wan sat. Ahsoka eyed him skeptically for a moment, wishing he wouldn't be so secretive. But she figured that eventually, Anakin might talk to her about it, like he said he would. One day he would open up to her.

After a few moments of inspection of the engine, Ahsoka crawled out the ship and looked to the two Jedi.

"Well," she started, smirking. "Do you want the bad news, or the _really _bad news?"


End file.
